The Surgery Report

Caleb's surgery went just as planned this morning. We checked in a little before 6am. After we registered they took us into a room where a nurse did a basic check up on him. This is where he got his hospital jammies and his blue wristband, which he was so excited about.


Then they took us to the pre-op room where there were tons of toys. He was a little out of control because there were quite a few other kids and a whole lot of toys. Then the doctors came out and met with us and told us what would be happening.

Then it was time to say "see ya later" to mom and dad. They put caleb in a wagon and started wheeling him away. He got a little nervous and hopped out and clung to me. But we saw a car that he wanted to drive into the OR so that took his mind off of us while he left.

I didn't cry up until this point. But I did lose it a little as we walked away from him. I wasn't so much worried about how the actual surgery would go. I was worried that he was scared and crying or something without any familiar faces with him. The surgery went as planned. Dr. Motoki made two incisions. One is along the outside of his lip line and one is along the inside so he could take the extra lymph tissue out of each side of the muscle without affecting the muscle. Here's a picture of him before he woke up from the general anesthesia.

He had a really hard time coming out of the anesthesia. It took him a couple hours before he could stay awake.




He also couldn't keep anything down, not even water. Everything we tried to give him (root beer slushie, popcicle, water) he threw up. Then he was afraid of throwing up so he didn't want to drink anything else. Caleb said, "Stop making me eat stuff! It makes me throw up and I can't throw up!" Poor kid. But the anesthesiologist wouldn't let us leave until he could keep down some liquid. We were there for 4 1/2 hours after surgery. That was a very long 4 1/2 hours for all of us.

Finally, as the anesthesia began to wear off, he was able to keep some sprite down and we were able to go home. He got to ride to the car in a wheel chair. He got to choose between a wheel chair and a wagon.


The car ride home consisted of a lot of crying. At first it was because he was in pain because the pain meds from surgery had worn off. So, we pulled over and got him a frosty so he'd have something on his stomach and I gave him some pain meds. About 20 minutes later he had to go potty. Really bad, apparantly. We pulled off and the bathrooms at the gas station we chose were out of order so he peed in the bushes. About 20 min later he threw up all over. Then he went to sleep. It was an eventful hour.

He is feeling a bit better now. Convincing him to take his pain medicine and antibiotic was quite the chore. He hates medicine. After about 20 min of breaks and spitting it out I finally got it down him. And we have to do this for three more days! Ah! His lip is getting more and more swollen by the minute. They said it would do that for a couple days and then get better. All in all, it went about as well as can be expected. I will keep you all updated on his recovery. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!